LARA NETS KEY ENDORSEMENT FROM INFLUENTIAL BUILDING TRADES AFFILIATE

LONG BEACH, CA -- Lining up more crucial support from working families, today State Senator Ricardo Lara's campaign for California State Insurance Commissioner collected a key endorsement from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 11.

In announcing their support, Antonio Sanchez, Political Director for International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 11, released the following statement:

"International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 11 is thrilled to announce our strong support of State Senator Ricardo Lara for Insurance Commissioner. He's been there for our members, fighting for more family sustaining good paying jobs, investments in infrastructure, job-training and apprenticeship programs, expanded access to healthcare, protections for workers' rights and more. Ricardo has proven himself as someone we can count on. We know he'll make a remarkable State Insurance Commissioner."

Only weeks since entering the race for California State Insurance Commissioner, State Senator Ricardo Lara has had the wind at his back, receiving a slew of high-powered endorsements including from:

Elected Leaders

United States Senator Kamala Harris

State Senate President pro Tempore Kevin de León

State Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon

California Board of Equalization Chair Fiona Ma

State Assembly Speaker Emeritus and State Senator Toni Atkins

State Assembly Speaker Emeritus and State Senator Robert Hertzberg

State Senator Dr. Ed Hernandez

State Senator Holly Mitchell

State Senator Ben Hueso

State Senator Tony Mendoza

State Senator Scott Wiener

State Senator Steven Bradford

State Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson

State Senator Nancy Skinner

State Senator Ben Allen

State Senator Mark Leno (Ret.)

State Assembly Member Jimmy Gomez

State Assembly Member Miguel Santiago

State Assembly Member Blanca Rubio

State Assembly Member Eduardo Garcia

State Assembly Member Jacqui Irwin

State Assembly Member Evan Low

State Assembly Member Tony Thurmond

State Assembly Member Kevin McCarty

State Assembly Member Susan Bonilla (Ret.)

Sacramento Mayor and former State Senate President pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg

International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) District Council 36

United Industrial Workers of the Seafarers International Union, SIUNA, AFL-CIO

International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 11

In recent weeks, Senator Lara, who recently co-introduced Californians for a Healthy California Act (SB 562), which amounts to single-payer healthcare for the state, announced that he is running to serve as California's State Insurance Commissioner - a statewide elected office dedicated to protecting consumers, enforcing all insurance regulations, and safeguarding Californians' economic and health security.

Dubbed by the Los Angeles Times as the "Point man in the push for immigrant rights," Senator Lara, who also previously served as Chair of the California Latino Legislative Caucus and currently serves as Vice Chair of the California Legislative Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Caucus, announced his candidacy by previously releasing the following statement:

"Our nation is in full blown crisis mode right now. We have a man in the White House with no popular mandate, who is methodically working to strip Americans of their healthcare, their economic security and their civil liberties.

"I'm running to be California's next State Insurance Commissioner because I believe at my core that California needs a strong defender, and a counterpuncher, who will stand up to fight our bullying President, Donald Trump, and his increasingly reckless federal government on issues from healthcare access to economic security and more. If millions of Californians begin losing their health insurance because of actions taken by Donald Trump, I will be there to fight him tooth and nail at every pass.

"As California's Insurance Commissioner, I'll work tirelessly to represent the great people of California, not the corporations, the billionaire class, the pharmaceutical or the insurance companies. I plan to work with anybody who is willing to come to the table, but my allegiance will always be first and foremost to the consumers, the patients, our working families, and our most vulnerable communities in our Golden State."

As a State Senator, Ricardo Lara has already been a leader on numerous issues that the office of the Insurance Commissioner interacts with. As stated above, he recently co-introduced a single-payer healthcare system for the state, and also spearheaded the groundbreaking law that provided health care for 170,000 immigrant children, and has played a strong, dynamic role in shaping, implementing and expanding Covered California.

In 2016, Senator Lara engineered the successful statewide campaign to allow for multi-lingual education in California's schools. He was also one of the key leaders behind a landmark effort to grant driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants in California. This legislation is more important than ever, now that Donald Trump has instructed border patrol agents that they may deport undocumented immigrants for the "crime" of driving without a license.

Senator Lara was born and raised in East Los Angeles and attended schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District. He graduated from San Diego State University with a double major in Journalism and Spanish. He worked as a legislative staffer for years, including working for State Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez and for then-Assemblymember and now State Senate President pro Tem Kevin de Léon. In 2010, Senator Lara was elected to the California State Assembly, and in 2012, he was elected to the California State Senate, where he made history as the first openly gay person of color in the State Senate.

His 33rd Senate District is expansive, encompassing nearly one million people, roughly 70% of which is Latino. The district is located in the heart of the South Bay and stretches from Long Beach to Lynwood, and from Huntington Park to Lakewood and Los Angeles.

Significantly, if elected, Senator Lara would be the first openly gay statewide elected official in California. Today, Senator Lara serves as Chairman of the Appropriations Committee of the California State Senate, considered to be perhaps the most influential committee in the California State Senate.